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PDF Tools

Unlock PDF — Remove Password Protection

Remove password protection from PDF files. Unlock PDFs for editing and printing.

Remove open passwordRemove restrictionsEnable editingEnable printing
or import from

Secure Transfer

HTTPS encrypted uploads

Privacy First

Files auto-deleted after processing

No Registration

Start converting instantly

Works Everywhere

Any browser, any device

How to Convert

1

Upload your password-protected PDF.

2

Enter the password if required.

3

Click Unlock and download the unprotected PDF.

About Unlock PDF

Password-protected PDFs provide security but can become obstacles when you need to edit, copy, or print content from documents you legitimately own or have permission to access. Our PDF unlock tool removes password protection and editing restrictions, giving you full access to work with your documents freely.

PDFs can have two types of protection: an open password that prevents viewing the document entirely, and a permissions password that allows viewing but restricts editing, printing, or copying. Our tool handles both scenarios. For open passwords, you simply enter the known password and we remove the encryption. For permissions-restricted PDFs, we can often remove restrictions to enable full functionality.

Business professionals unlock PDFs when they need to edit contracts they created but forgot the password for, or when they receive client documents with unnecessary restrictions. Researchers unlock academic papers to extract quotes and citations for their work. Archivists unlock old documents to create accessible digital copies. Students unlock course materials to annotate and highlight text for studying.

The unlocking process removes encryption while preserving all document content and formatting. Images, fonts, form fields, and interactive elements remain intact. The output file is a standard, unrestricted PDF that works with any PDF reader or editor. We process files securely and delete them immediately after conversion.

Common Use Cases

  • Remove forgotten passwords from your own documents
  • Enable editing on PDFs with permissions restrictions
  • Unlock documents for annotation and highlighting
  • Remove printing restrictions from owned documents
  • Enable text copying from restricted research papers

How It Works

Our PDF unlock tool uses QPDF, a content-preserving PDF transformation library. It decrypts AES and RC4 encrypted PDFs using the provided password, then writes an unencrypted copy. The process preserves all document content, metadata, and structure without re-encoding.

Supported Formats

.PDF

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you need to know the password to unlock the document. We cannot crack passwords.
Yes, if you own the document or have permission to remove protection.